Allegany Artisans Tour keepin’ on

Artists across Allegany County continue a 30-year tradition to introduce locals to their art and bring tourists to the area at next weekend’s Allegany Artisans Tour.

The Allegany Artisans Tour started in 1987 with just 10 studios. By the next year the number of studios on the tour more than doubled. This year, 30 years later, there are more than 30 artists who will open their studios next Saturday and Sunday to the public.

Only three of those founding artists are still on the tour — Karen Tufty-Wisniewski, Stephen Walker and Ken Reichman. The others have passed away or moved away, but the desire to introduce the artistic culture of the area still remains the artist’s primary goal.

Metalsmith Stephen Walker, who helped get the ball rolling after he and painter Harry Thompson talked over the idea, said he originally saw the tour as a way of bringing local artists together.

"There were artists all over the place. We knew about each other. We met with each other at shows in other counties and states, but we didn’t get together here. I thought this would be kind of like our own chamber of commerce," he said.

Tufty-Wisniewski said she originally thought the tour would help the area economically by showing locals that they didn’t have to drive to Buffalo or Rochester to shop.

"We thought about how we could get people to come to us," she said.

But while she thought the Artisans Tour, one of the first and the oldest to be held in a rural setting, would continue and grow, some of the other founding artists didn’t.

From Nevada, where he now lives, Roger Barnes, a woodworker whose studio was located near Five-Corners on the McHenry Valley Road said, "You’re lucky if a job or a marriage lasts 30 years. For something like an artisans tour to last is remarkable."

He said he recalls that the purpose of the tour was to create a local market because artists had to travel ‘a long ways’ to sell their work

"At that time of year (late Fall) the national shows were closing, so it seemed like the right time for a local show," he said.

He congratulates the Allegany Artisans for the continued success of the tour and said, "In this era of instant communication it is nice to see there is still somewhere people come face to face."

Thompson, who now owns two successful art galleries in Kennebunkport, Me., remembers that a lot of artists were living in Allegany County when the idea for the tour was hatched.

"It was a pretty cheap place to live, so a lot of us hung around together. We thought we could do something that would get everybody together. I didn’t have a clue back then that it would last this long. It is pretty cool. I hope they keep on keepin’ on."

Formerly a watercolorist, Thompson is getting back into oils and is painting his surroundings, boats and seacoast. He occasionally returns to the county to conduct workshops.

Leon Fontier is retired and living in Penn Yan. At the time the Artisan Tour first started he lived in Troupsburg and was a metalsmith working in pewter.

He said, "For a grassroots effort I’m surprised that it (Artisans Tour) is still going on and that so many people come to it. We started it because we wanted to let people know what we were doing."

Walker agreed saying that back in the 80s when his career was becoming successful, "There were people who had no idea what I did. They’d see me out during the day while other men were working and they would think that I was unemployed. There was one older guy who kept giving me employment tips, eventually he worked for me."

In the beginning, said Tufty, whose Alfred Terracotta bakeware is still a staple on the tour, "We would do demonstrations on the open studio tour, so people could see how we actually make things. We don’t do that so much anymore and I would like to see us get back to it."

Tufty added that even in the beginning she could see the open studio Artisans Tour being a success.

"It always had a lot of potential and as long as we continue to have new artists in the area I think it will continue to be successful," he said. "To me it is not about making money. It is a very special time to see everyone and a time to talk and show people what we do."

The Artisan Tour will get started Friday night when a few of the participants will open their studios for a preview from 5 to 8 p.m. Look on the www.facebook.com/alleganyartisans to discover the Pre-tour receptions and to find a map to the participating studios. The Tour takes place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday with studios from Alfred Station to Wellsville and from Whitesville to Fillmore. Red and white signs point the way to the artists.

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